Beam development, the Portland firm that has proposed a local-focused historic restoration of the Center Court and Washburne buildings in downtown Eugene has won kudos for a similar project in its home town.
As part of its “Best of Portland” issue, the alternative newspaper Willamette Week praised Beam principal Bradley Malsinâ€™s Central Eastside project as “the epicenter of Portland’s radiant future” with the “creative class.”
Hereâ€™s WW:

Best Nerve Center of Portland’s Future
Alberta is to tacos what Mississippi Avenue is to being overrated and the Central Eastside is to being the epicenter of Portland’s radiant future. Brad Malsin may have lost his 2005 bid to spearhead the Portland Development Commission’s Burnside Bridgehead project, but that hasn’t stopped him from developing 300,000 square feet of creative office space right down the street in the old B&O buildingâ€”all before Opus, the PDC’s chosen developer, has managed to lift even a shovelful of dirt. With fashion designers, architects and environmental engineers set to move in, Malsin’s tenant roster is a creative class demographer’s wet dream. “I want a place where young people and businesses can grow their dreams,” he says. Hell, if the city can’t do it, send Malsin.http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3337/9270/

Malsinâ€™s Beam is also in competition with some of the Opus people here. KWG includes people whoâ€™ve worked for and with Opus on the Bridgehead and other projects. In Eugene, the city council voted to involve both KWG and Beam in proposed downtown redevelopment involving about $50 million in public subsidies.
City Manager Dennis Taylor said Beam had agreed to work together with KWG, perhaps giving KWG control over choosing tenants for the ground floors.
But Malsin said heâ€™ll keep an independent, community-oriented focus for his project. “We have a different way of seeing the world,” he said of KWG. “We don’t do the shopping mall kind of deals.”
Hereâ€™s the EW archive story: http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/05/31/news.html
An earlier cover story on the downtown proposals is at: http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/04/12/coverstory.html
Hereâ€™s a look at what Beam proposed for Eugeneâ€™s Center Court:

For those wanting to get involved in the big and expensive decision of whatâ€™s best for Eugeneâ€™s downtown hereâ€™s two public events tonight and tomorrow: